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EAST BERGHOLT PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes
Roads, Footpaths and Flatford Committee Meeting
on Thursday 22
nd
January 2026 at 8.00 pm
The Lambe School, Gaston Street, East Bergholt

PRESENT
Joan Miller
Michael Hockley
Graeme Woodcock
John Price

OPEN PUBLIC SESSION –

There were no members of the public present.

1. WELCOME AND APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Apologies were received from Nigel Roberts and Ricky Allen

2. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST –
There were no declarations of interests.

3. MINUTES –
The Minutes of 16
th
October 2025, were accepted as a true record of that meeting. Proposed GW,
Seconded MH, unanimous.

4. MATTERS ARISING/UPDATES –
Regarding item 14 Charging Points, MH said that the residents of Foxhall Fields are furious. SCC
never consulted the residents and the residents do not want the EV charging points proposed by
SCC. They particularly do not want to lose the parking spaces that these would occupy.

JM said the County Councillor Georgia Hall is aware that the residents are furious.

5. WHITEHORSE ROAD SID CAMERA
This item is still waiting on the SCC Liaison Engineer, Melanie Hall, to come back on the latest
proposal for a location for the SID camera (by the telegraph pole outside the social club on the
other side of the road). However as Melanie is still on long term sick leave, JP contacted her
manager, Mr Wayne Saunders, to ask him to visit and advise about the best location for the SID
camera. Mr Saunders suggested that JP tag onto the “Teams” meeting about Heath Road, which
was held on 14
th
January 2026. This was felt to be inappropriate.

JP to contact Mr Saunders again.

6. SPEED REDUCTION, HEATH Road (Nigel Roberts)

NR was due to report but gave his apologies as he was unable to attend. However he sent a
report. This report was reviewed by the Committee members and is reproduced below.

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PJA had submitted their design proposals for the B1070 to SCC Highways in summer 2025 and as
reported previously it had been near impossible to get a helpful response from Wayne Saunders or
his colleagues for months, however after various emails a “Teams Meeting” finally took place on
14 January 2026. This was attended by Wayne Saunders and Luke Barber (an engineer) from
Highways, Sam Goss and George Long from PJA and Joan and me.
SCC were broadly supportive of PJA’s proposals but raised some concerns about raised tables and
build outs without street lighting. PJA agreed to make some adjustments and re submit the plans to
Wayne and Luke. SCC will then also engage with their Assets/ Maintenance team so we can reach a
point of agreement in principle to the overarching design.
PJA will then prepare the Stage 2 RSA and all the necessary detailed specifications.
SCC’s Local Highways Budget will need to review the details (and agree!) PJA’s final proposals.
At the same point PJA and EBPC will discuss budgets and priorities to break the scheme into
affordable and focussed packages, and ensure alignment and confirm prices with their Contractor.
We discussed delivery options and the most viable route is likely to be using SCC’s term
contractor.
We also advised on the High School rebuilding plans and highlighted the importance of traffic
calming being conditioned (by SCC) to any planning consent so the two projects are able to
dovetail.
SCC have updated their 20 mph policy. This can now be “easily” implemented if 85th percentiles
are less than 28mph. This can help our B1070 speed reduction aims if the traffic calming
interventions bring down speeds as planned. Elsewhere in the village 20mph will apparently now be
easier to implement too.
EBPC and PJA will be meeting to establish next steps and how we move from design to delivery,
assuming we get the green light from SCC.
Overall I’d say this was progress but, as is seemingly always the case, we didn’t get an abundance
of positive vibes from SCC but sufficient to keep pushing”

7. UPDATE ON STRAIGHT ROAD, B1070 MILL ROAD AND TOUCHEY HILL
There is nothing new to report. JP still needs to encourage SCC Paul West to visit East Bergholt.

8. DOG BINS
The new dog bin near the new Coop on Hills Estate has been erected.

9. VILLAGE BENCHES

GW confirmed that the “Chatty Benches” signs had been fixed to the appropriate benches.

Graeme was thanked for his work.

GW raised the idea of a bench seat in the middle of Elm Estate and stressed the benefits to
residents. Apparently, currently there are no benches anywhere on the estate. The costs of a
bench was discussed and agreed that there were sufficient funds in the 2026/27 budget to
purchase a suitable bench. GW proposed a bench for Elm Estate, seconded by MH, all we in
favour.

10. VILLAGE CENTRE CAR PARK, DATE FOR RA & MAINTENANCE PLAN REVIEW
JP to arrange a date with GW and MH in February. We will meet in the car park to review the risk
assessment and maintenance plan.

11. IMPROVEMENT PLAN FOR CARPARK AND PUBLIC CONVENIENCES

There are some funds in the 2026/27 budget to carrier out some small improvement works in the
car park and public conveniences. However it was noted that the planning application, made by the
proprietary of the Red Lion, (for 14 bed and breakfast units in the garden behind the PH) has

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included for cladding for the toilets. The meeting was concerned about construction activities and
the planned position of an access into the new development from the car park. Concern was
expressed about possible disruption to the use of the car park during the time of construction of the
proposed development. JM agreed to arrange a meeting with Mr Henry Fairbanks from the Red
lion to discover how the developer intends to manage construction traffic and discuss the lease
requirements.

The assistant Clerk had also asked that the Committee should consider provision for de-icing grit
at the car park. This was discussed and the purchase of a small grit bin was unanimously agreed.

It was also agreed to find and re-erect the East Bergholt information sign that used to be in the car
park.

12. VILLAGE PLAN FOR THE ROADS
JP proposed that the Committee might produce a road issue list and improvement plan, for all the
roads in East Bergholt. JP illustrated how this might be done by showing what might be entered for
Mill Road. It being noted that another serious accident happened at the Gandish Road/Straight
Road/Mill Road crossroads. This idea was approved.

JP raised the issue of narrow pedestrian pavements in Heath Road with particular reference to the
narrow pavement outside the property known as St Francis. JP was of the opinion that it might be
possible to widen the footway at this point. MH wished to discuss a narrow pavement outside a
different property on Heath Road and JM wished to leave the matter to our consultants JPA. This
matter is to be raised again at a subsequent meeting.

13. VILLAGE PLAN FOR THE FOOTPATHS
JP proposed developing a similar plan for the footpaths. The individual footpaths can be identified
by the parish footpath number. The plan could identify such things as disabled ramps for Fen
Bridge. This was agreed.

14. RISK ASSESSMENTS
The car park risk assessment will be reviewed at the site meeting in February.

The litter picking risk assessment was reviewed and approved subject to the addition of a new line
to include an additional control measure to help manage risks on roads such as Hughes Road.
Hughes Road is a country lane with no footways where the speed limit is the national speed limit.
Consequently vehicles could be traveling at a fast pace unaware that there may be a litter picker
ahead. It was agreed that a (folding?) red triangle hazard warning sign might be helpful which can
be set at the side of the road to alert drivers to the presence of a person at work. This should be
marked on the risk assessment.

15. URGENT COMMUNICATIONS
There were no urgent communications

16. DATE OF NEXT RFF COMMITTEE MEETING – 22/04/2026 at 8 pm